


Sleep With The Fishes

by HedonistInk



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Aquariums, Birthday Party, Getting Together, Klance Zine: Intertwined Galaxies, M/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-02-18 10:27:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13098162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HedonistInk/pseuds/HedonistInk
Summary: When Lance's sister decides that an aquarium sleepover birthday party is absolutely what needs to happen, Lance expects to have a boring night chaperoning a group of kids. He doesn't expect to have their host turn out to be the boy he's been crushing on for far too long.





	Sleep With The Fishes

**Author's Note:**

> So here's my piece for the Klance Zine Intertwined Galaxies! I thought this was a really sweet idea and I'm glad I got the chance to bring it to print!

"Girls! Girls, stick together!" Lance shouted, hands gesturing emphatically at the gaggle of tweens and barely-teens giggling, laughing, and scurrying ahead of him into the aquarium.

"Relax, Lance," Hunk reassured, "they're all going to the same place. It'll be okay." 

"Hunk do you even know how much Mami would have my head if I  _ lost _ one?" Lance responded, exasperated. It was going to be a long night, Lance could tell that much already. He loved his sisters but getting landed with  _ twenty _ adolescent girls? It was too much even for his awesome big brother skills. 

Looking out over the gaggle of young girls, Hunk paused contemplatively. "...Are you sure she'd notice?" 

"Hunk!" Lance scolded with a laugh, punching his friend in the arm playfully. 

"Kidding, kidding!" 

Lance made his way to the desk while the girls grabbed at each other and pointed over at the manta ray touch tank. After a series of forms and paperwork and disclaimers, they were all signed in and the girls, Lance, and Hunk were all ushered into a party room off down a back hallway by the massive shark tank for 'orientation'. 

Which also happened to be when they were introduced to the staff chaperone. 

Which was when Lance discovered said chaperone was alarmingly familiar. 

_ Keith. _

Oh jeez. Oh boy. The guy had been in a bunch of Lance's classes over the years. They'd gone to the same middle school, the same high school, and he was pretty sure Keith might have been in his college chem lecture. He wasn't sure. It was only a week into the semester, after all. He just couldn't get away from the guy. 

Not that he really wanted to. They used to argue and squabble a lot when they were younger, sure, but somehow Keith had wound up in their friend group, gotten tangled up with Hunk and Pidge and even Lance, dragging Shiro along with him to round out their little awkward band of rejects. And Lance was… glad for it. 

Keith was a nice guy, once you got past the whole 'naturally good at everything but not even conceited about it' thing and the  _ totally _ unfashionable mullet that he somehow managed to pull off perfectly like he fell off the cover of some music album. 

And Lance totally didn't have a crush on him. 

Really.

Honest.

Okay so Lance had been crushing on him since sometime in the middle of senior year. And as much as he tried to ignore it so he could maintain their friendship without making things weird his crush was just getting worse. And seeing Keith here, facing the looming threat of spending an entire night in a dimly lit aquarium babysitting a bunch of kids with him? Yeah, it wasn't helping. 

Oh crap right he was supposed to be paying attention to what Keith's supervisor was saying. 

Forcing himself to tune back in, Lance nodded along as the man, an older gentleman by the name of Coran, explained where the bathrooms were, what the policies and procedures were for the evening, what the  _ rules _ were. No roughhousing, no running, no destruction of aquarium property. Well, yeah, obviously? Wasn't that stuff obvious? Then again they probably had to say it anyway for liability purposes. Who knew birthday parties could come with disclaimers? Well, Coran, apparently. And Keith. 

Since when did Keith work at the aquarium anyway? That shirt looked unfairly good on him, the pale blue different from the shades of dark grey and black he usually saw Keith in. 

Crap, focus, right. 

Lance tuned back in again as Coran finished talking and handed things over to Keith to begin their guided tour of all the exhibits now that the main body of the aquarium was closed and they had the place to themselves. Well, aside from other staff. 

The evening moved by in a blur of colourful fish and chasing down preteen girls and herding them back towards the group. It was like herding cats, really. Hunk was an absolute blessing and Lance couldn't have been more thankful for his presence. But Keith obviously wasn't afraid to do his fair share of wrangling either when two of the girls get the bright idea of trying to sneak into the rehab center. 

Before long, Lance found himself looking out over a field of sleeping bags and unconscious figures. 

_ Finally. _

Slumping back against the wall next to Hunk, they traded conversation in hushed whispers until Keith suddenly excused himself and slunk out of the room and towards the back door to the outside exhibits. Asking Hunk to cover for him, Lance smoothed out his shirt and rolled his eyes at Hunk's good-natured encouraging jabs before ducking outside after Keith in time to watch him light up a cigarette. Keith smoked? That was new. Was it new? Lance didn't know about it so it was probably new enough. 

"Shouldn't you be watching the kids?" Keith glanced over at him, taking a long drag of his cigarette. 

Watching the way Keith's lips pursed slightly around the exhalation of smoke was just unfair. Lance wanted to kiss him, gross smoke taste or not. 

"Shouldn't you?" Lance quipped back with a quirk of his brow. He shrugged, leaning against the wall. "Nah, I mean… they're all sleeping, right? It's like… the middle of the night,  _ way _ past their bedtimes. Plus Hunk can wrangle with the best of them." 

"Somehow I don't think your sister's friends would appreciate being 'wrangled'." Keith looked over at him, lips quirked in mild amusement. 

"Eh, they're young, they bounce," Lance countered with a flippant hand gesture before winking cheekily.  

That one earned him a snort and Lance felt a rush of pride. He'd made Keith laugh. Okay, well, technically it wasn't a full laugh, but it was most of a laugh. It still counted, making Lance's gut flutter with butterflies as he felt a flush of proud heat on his cheeks. 

"S-so… smoke break, huh?" Lance asked, trying to carry on the conversation. 

Keith flicked at his cigarette, sending the ashes scattering on the breeze with a shrug. "Gives me something to do. People consider it an okay reason to step out for a minute. You know I get weird if I'm cooped up too long." 

"Yeah… That's… actually a totally fair reason. Huh…" Lance nodded thoughtfully. "So have you worked here long?" 

Taking a moment to respond as he breathed out another puff of smoke, Keith shifted his weight slightly. Lance would have sworn Keith shifted  _ closer. _ "Mm… every summer for a few years now? This is the first year I'm doing the fall too though. When I don't have classes anyway." 

With a quiet 'huh', Lance tilted his head, processing the new information. "Funny… I always thought you were more of a stars guy than a fish guy." 

"Maybe I'm just a both guy? Up in space and deep underwater aren't that different." Keith shrugged. "You need special equipment to explore either one, equipment we  _ still _ haven't advanced far enough to totally explore  _ either. _ Hell, they train NASA astronauts in a giant diving tank because working underwater mimics working in space." 

"Oh yeah… I remember seeing something about that on the science channel once." Lance nodded. "I'd rather stay in Earth's atmosphere, personally. But the water is really cool. So much stuff they still don't even know like… This is our  _ planet _ and we can't even reach parts of it. That's so trippy. That or the sky. Just… flying, man, y'know?" Lance sighed wistfully. "That's the dream, man." 

Their conversation flowed easily after that, trading little facts about their interests and moments with Pidge or Hunk or Shiro that the other hadn't heard about. Lance wasn't sure when the last time he'd actually  _ just _ talked to Keith alone without the others was. It was… nice. Really nice. Keith was funny. Well, when he wasn't actually  _ trying _ to be funny, at least. His deliberate jokes were just  _ painful. _ He spent too much time around Shiro, clearly. The puns had infected him. 

At some point Keith had finished his cigarette but neither of them seemed in any hurry to get back inside. 

And there was definitely less personal space between them than there had been when Lance had first settled himself against the wall. He could feel the warmth of Keith's shoulder against his, both of them nearly facing each other where they'd turned to look at each other, bodies forming a rough V. 

Another bad joke from Lance about Keith maybe being the actual cryptid rather than his precious Loch Ness Monster had Keith laughing and brushing his hair back behind his ear as he looked down for a moment. 

Lance bit his lip for a moment, hardly daring to breathe. Well… He wasn't going to get a better chance. 

"Hey… Uhm… So… this might be weird. And if it's weird, it's totally cool, just tell me and I'll back off, like no big deal man, you know? But like… if it's not weird then like hey that's awesome right? And you don't really know which it's gonna be until you just go for it, right? So like--" 

"Lance…" Keith interrupted, making Lance's jaw snap shut mid-ramble. 

"Y-yeah?" 

"Just say it. I won't judge, okay?" 

Lance swallowed. Right no pressure. Swallowing again, Lance teetered on the edge of his confidence before surging forward. He pressed his lips against Keith's in a light, chaste kiss, lingering for only a moment before pulling back, suddenly finding the pavement the most fascinating thing. He licked his lips, tasting the lingering cigarette taste from Keith's lips and shivering slightly. 

"....Oh." Keith's voice broke the silence. Oh? That was it? Just 'oh'? 

"...Yep. So uh… now you know, I guess?" 

"That's… You're serious?" 

"Serious as a heart attack. …Which I might be having right now from nerves." Lance half-wheezed, not daring to look up. 

Keith's quiet chuckle made Lance's heart all the more intent on shoving itself up into his throat as his gut fluttered almost painfully. "I'm pretty sure you aren't having a heart attack, Lance. But that's… I wasn't expecting that one." 

"Y-yeah… I knew it'd make stuff weird. We can just… forget that ever happened, yeah? I don't… I just had to try, y'know?" Lance squirmed, wishing the ground could just swallow him up. Maybe a sharknado could come by and gobble him up. That sounded good. Or the penguins from that kids movie could kidnap him. 

Lance's--admittedly odd--line of thought was cut off by Keith prodding his chin up, making Lance jolt slightly as he met Keith's gaze. 

"It's not weird. It's… just unexpected?" Keith was suddenly much much closer and--

Oh.

_ Oh. _

Keith was  _ kissing _ him. Keith's lips were on Lance's and they were warm and a bit wet and it was more solid than Lance's attempt. And Lance was sure his brain had stopped working entirely because  _ Keith was kissing him. _

It didn't last nearly long enough for Lance's taste before Keith was pulling back slightly, a shy smile playing at his lips. Keith was  _ blushing. _ Lance was sure his own face looked like a tomato but that was more normal for him. He didn't think he'd ever seen  _ Keith _ blush before. 

"...Oh," was all Lance could manage. Suddenly he understood how Keith felt. 

"...Yep." Keith mirrored Lance's own response. "I just… didn't think it would be mutual." 

Lance huffed out a laugh. Now that he could empathise with. "Why risk messing up a good thing, right?" 

"Exactly," Keith agreed with a breathless laugh of his own. 

The silence stretched between them for two seconds… five seconds… ten seconds… "S-so do you wanna?" The question burst hurriedly out of Lance's lips. 

"H-huh?" 

"...Risk messing up a good thing?" Lance clarified. "For… maybe the chance at an even better thing?" 

Keith blinked at Lance for a long moment and Lance felt his skin start to crawl with that feeling of 'I shouldn't have said that'. 

Finally, Keith spoke up, expression cracking into a soft grin as he spoke, "...That has to be the  _ weirdest _ way I've ever been asked out." 

"What can I say, I'm a one-of-a-kind guy," Lance laughed in slight embarrassment. 

Keith's smile turned into something more fond even as he rolled his eyes. "Yeah… Yeah, you are." 

"You know it." After a moment, Lance realized he hadn't actually gotten a proper answer and frowned. "...Uh… Just so we're clear, is that a yes on the dating thing?" 

Keith snorted, rolling his eyes with a shake of his head. "Yes, it's a yes." 

"Oh. Uh… Cool. That's… cool. Awesome, even." Lance felt as though he might combust with how his heart was dancing in his chest. He pushed himself off of the wall, grabbing his right elbow with his left hand nervously. Holy shit. He asked Keith out and Keith said yes. He kissed Keith. Keith kissed him! "W-we should probably get back inside and do a headcount, huh." 

Barely a heartbeat passed before Lance found himself being yanked back towards the wall, specifically yanked against Keith, the space between them barely room for a breath. Keith's gaze was fixed on the middle of Lance's chest. "I'm sure Hunk can handle ' _ wrangling _ ' for another few minutes," Keith noted wryly, tangling his grip in Lance's shirt at his shoulders and keeping him close. Keith's gaze flicked up to meet his, blush still dusting his cheeks, and Lance swore he felt his heart stop. 

When Keith's lips met his again, Lance decided that he was very  _ very _ right. Another few minutes wouldn't hurt anyone. 

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/interdictedink) or [tumblr!](http://interdictedink.tumblr.com/)


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